1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to headsets used for viewing media content and more particularly, headsets with see-through mode.
2. Description of the Related Art
The computing industry and the video game industry have seen many changes over the years. As computing power has expanded, developers of video games have created game software that have adapted to the increased computing power. To this end, video game developers have been coding games that incorporate sophisticated operations and mathematics to produce a very realistic game experience.
These games are presented as part of a gaming system including game consoles, portable game devices, and/or provided as services over a server or the cloud. As is well known, the game console is designed to connect to a monitor (usually a television) and enable user interaction through handheld controllers/input devices. A game console may include specialized processing hardware, including a CPU, a graphics processor for processing intensive graphics operations, a vector unit for performing geometric transformations, and other glue hardware, firmware, and software. The game console may be further designed with an optical disc tray for receiving game compact discs for local play through the game console. Online gaming is also possible, where a user can interactively play against or with other users over the Internet. As game complexity continues to intrigue players, game and hardware manufacturers have continued to innovate to enable additional and more realistic interactivity.
A growing trend in the computer gaming industry is to develop games that increase the interaction between the user and the gaming system. One way of accomplishing a richer interactive experience is to use wireless game controllers whose movement and gestures are tracked by the gaming system. These movements and gestures are used as inputs for the game. Gesture inputs, generally speaking, refer to having an electronic device such as a computing system, video game console, smart appliance, etc., react to some gesture made by the user while playing the game that are captured by the electronic device.
Another way of accomplishing a more immersive interactive experience is to use a head-mounted display. A head-mounted display is worn by the user and can be configured to present various graphics, such as a view of a virtual space, in a display portion of the HMD. The graphics presented on a head-mounted display can cover a large portion or even all of a user's field of view. Hence, a head-mounted display can provide an immersive experience to the user.
The display screens in most head-mounted display are opaque so as to provide a clear view of the virtual reality when the user is in “immersive” mode. In such head-mounted displays, the view of the outside/real world is blocked when rendering virtual reality media content. The blocked view makes it hard for users to pick up a controller, pick up a cell phone, detect a movement in the real-world, etc. Of course the easiest solution is for the user to remove the HMD so that the user can view the real-world. This would require the user who is completely immersed in the virtual reality to re-orient himself/herself to view the real-world.
It is in this context that embodiments of the invention arise.